UK Based SEO Expert Servicing Global Business

UK Based SEO Expert Servicing Global Business

Matt Cutts

Cutts to the chase with Matt

Since 2009 Matt Cutts – the head of Google’s webspam team – has put out hundreds of videos offering insider tips on search & search engine compliance to webmasters. Below is a listing (from most recent to oldest) of every video he’s ever put out that adds something important to the reservoir of webmaster knowledge – along with key points from each video. This accounts for around 70% of all video he’s ever released. I have intentionally made the key points as brief as possible so as to best isolate the key take away message or emphasis from Matt to the question asked. I’d suggest watching all videos at some point as the nuance of how Matt responds also gives valuable insights into how important or not he feels certain elements are or are not that come up for discussion. The listing below though should be of highly concentrated worth to anyone who wants to learn as much about SEO & SEO best practices in as short an amount of time as possible.

There is some seriously valuable wisdom imparted below:

2014 – 28 videos

2013 – 54 videos

2012 – 29 videos

2011 – 67 videos

2010 – 83 videos

2009 – 64 videos

02-Jun-2014

How can content be ranked if there aren’t many links to it?

With other ranking factors.

28-May-2014

What happens when one page has two links to the same URL?

Same dilution of PageRank as other links.

12-May-2014

What could the webspam team have done better?

Tackled paid links sooner. Not penalised low quality sites enough.

05-May-2014

Will backlinks lose their importance in ranking?

With time, yes.

30-Apr-2014

The importance of content in the body of a page

Pivotal.

28-Apr-2014

How does Google choose titles for search results?

Short. 2. Accurate. 3. Relevant to query.

23-Apr-2014

How can small sites become popular?

Add greater value than competitors.

16-Apr-2014

What are some myths about SEO?

Ads impact rankings.

07-Apr-2014

How does Googlebot handle content loaded via AJAX?

As the page loads.

02-Apr-2014

How does Google separate popularity from authority?

Authoritative sites generally have more PageRank.

31-Mar-2014

How does Google evaluate algorithmic changes?

Search Quality Raters.

26-Mar-2014

How can I tell Google that multiple domains are related?

Hreflang

24-Mar-2014

How can I tell if my site is affected by a particular algorithm?

Webmaster Tools.

19-Mar-2014

Can I place multiple breadcrumbs on a page?

Yes, but Google will only pick up the first.

17-Mar-2014

What should sites do with pages for products that are no longer available?

If I use multiple versions of a phrase, would it be seen as keyword spam?

Not if its natural looking.

23-Feb-2010

How can I add over 1,000,000 URLs to a Sitemap?

Use sitemap index that references many different internal sitemaps.

22-Feb-2010

Can dofollow comments on my blog affect my blog’s rankings?

Yes.

17-Feb-2010

How can a video/image heavy improve its rankings?

Meta data, captioning, and tags.

16-Feb-2010

Is it worth spending time on creating tags and categories?

Not really.

11-Feb-2010

How can I get my business well known online?

Be excellent.

02-Feb-2010

Does Google Analytics data impact rankings?

No.

28-Jan-2010

What’s the best screen resolution to design for?

Over 800×600.

27-Jan-2010

Is the order of links on a page important ranking?

No.

25-Jan-2010

Is cross-linking websites bad?

Depends.

19-Jan-2010

What is the best way to implement breadcrumbs?

Reflect site hierarchy.

02-Jan-2010

Is speed a bigger ranking signal than relevance?

No.

23-Nov-2009

How can I remove old content from Google’s index?

404 or robots.txt.

19-Nov-2009

Can moving my website to “the cloud” harm my rankings?

No.

17-Nov-2009

Why would another page rank above a site’s homepage?

More links.

28-Oct-2009

What to do if I don’t know why I’m penalized?

Reconsideration request.

27-Oct-2009

Should I link to all press mentions of my site?

No.

21-Oct-2009

Does the size of a website affect its authority?

No.

20-Oct-2009

Will Google personalize results based on IP location?

Could do.

14-Oct-2009

How would you run your own online marketing company?

Useful service that is transparent.

13-Oct-2009

Does Google consider the URL of an image?

Yes.

28-Sep-2009

How are duplicate shopping pages with different currencies handled in Google?

Google’s show best version.

23-Sep-2009

Will you provide information about algorithm updates?

We confirm them.

Can you benefit from content scraped from your site?

If they link to it.

21-Sep-2009

Google does not use the keywords meta tag for ranking purposes?

It was abused.

16-Sep-2009

Why doesn’t google.com validate?

Reduces download time.

15-Sep-2009

Should I use pipes or dashes in my titles?

Doesn’t matter.

14-Sep-2009

Will Google notify webmasters of violations of guidelines?

Yes.

11-Sep-2009

How should I link to a site that I have a personal relationship with?

Mention relationship in text around link.

08-Sep-2009

How are spam reports prioritized?

By user impact.

26-Aug-2009

What factors influence video results?

Query & authority/links

20-Aug-2009

Are footer links less important than in body text links?

Yes, less important.

18-Aug-2009

Why are .com sites ranking well in UK SERPs?

Could be best result.

10-Jul-2009

HTML site map or XML Sitemap?

Use both.

10-Jul-2009

Which is better for searching: Google or Twitter?

Google.

08-Jul-2009

Is Google doing away with the meta description?

No.

06-Jul-2009

How do meta geo tags affect search results?

They don’t.

01-Jul-2009

Can a blogroll link affect a blog’s reputation?

Yes.

29-Jun-2009

How can I optimize my site cheaply?

Be creative.

26-Jun-2009

Will I be penalized if my URLs all have the same sitemap priority?

No.

25-Jun-2009

Can the location of my web server affect how I rank on Google?

Yes.

22-Jun-2009

What’s the best way to move to a new CMS?

Gradually.

19-Jun-2009

What’s the best way to check for links to my site?

Webmaster Tools or Yahoo Site Explorer (no longer exists).

15-Jun-2009

Do dates in URLs of pages/posts imply fresh content?

No.

11-Jun-2009

Why do big brands rank so well?

They don’t.

10-Jun-2009

What is Google doing to fight comment spam?

Nofollow attribute.

09-Jun-2009

Does linkbait need to be a black hat technique?

No.

05-Jun-2009

How many pages can Google index from one site?

Unlimited.

04-Jun-2009

Will a “coming soon” or “under construction” page hurt my site?

No.

02-Jun-2009

How can I make sure Google indexes deeper pages?

Link to them from home page.

27-May-2009

How can new pages get indexed quickly?

Get links.

26-May-2009

Can product descriptions be duplicate content?

Yes.

22-May-2009

Why is @ ignored in queries?

To prevent indexing email addresses.

21-May-2009

Can I publish over 100 pages simultaneously?

Sure.

20-May-2009

Will DiggBar lead to duplicate content?

Nope.

11-May-2009

Will I get more traffic if I optimize images?

Yes.

08-May-2009

What determins the PageRank of a Twitter profile?

Links.

05-May-2009

Why aren’t penalized sites told via Webmaster Tools?

They generally are.

01-May-2009

Should I nofollow links to my disclaimer/privacy policy?

Doesn’t matter.

28-Apr-2009

Do site load times affect Google rankings?

No (changed later).

11-Apr-2009

Can you use “nofollow” in JavaScript?

Yes.

08-Mar-2009

Is the order of H-tags important?

Not really.

08-Mar-2009

Will SEO exist in five years?

Yes. (well done!)

06-Mar-2009

Can I disallow crawling of CSS and JavaScript?

You shouldn’t.

06-Mar-2009

Has Google changed the importance it grants social media?

Yes.

06-Mar-2009

How do I optimize an e-commerce site without much content?

Create content.

06-Mar-2009

Are gaps in the HTML source bad?

Doesn’t matter.

06-Mar-2009

Should you take out file extensions from URLs?

Doesn’t matter.

06-Mar-2009

Should I tweak titles and descriptions to improve CTR?

Yes.

06-Mar-2009

Will spelling corrections become more common in search results?

Yes.

06-Mar-2009

What can you do after being hacked?

File reconsideration request.

06-Mar-2009

What’s a good site structure?

Important pages near top/root/home page.

06-Mar-2009

When did Google start shows “Did you mean” in search results?

November 2008.

06-Mar-2009

Content or links?

Both.

05-Mar-2009

Does keyword position in URL impact ranking?

A tiny bit.

05-Mar-2009

Is redirecting a many domains suspicious?

Depends.

05-Mar-2009

More than one H1 on a page: good or bad?

No big deal but try not to.

04-Mar-2009

Does anchor text carry via a 301 redirect?

Generally yes.

04-Mar-2009

Is Google favoring brands in search results?

Not directly.

04-Mar-2009

Should big websites use rel=canonical on all pages?

They can do.

11-Feb-2009

Can a few non-safe words stop my website from ranking in SafeSearch results?

No.

What is Organic Search (SEO)?

Who is Matt Cutts?

Matt Cutts is head of webspam & the public interface between Google & the search engine optimisation community. He first joined Google in 2000 and programmed the initial version of SafeSearch.

Matt holds a PhD in computer graphics from the University of North Carolina. He also holds an MS from the same institution as well as BS degrees in mathematics and computer science from the University of Kentucky.